Chapter Text
Felicity sighed at the stacks of paperwork cluttering her desk. She needed to get her head in the game and quit worrying about Oliver and what could be happening in Nanda Parbat. Just because she hadn’t heard anything for a while didn’t mean that something had happened. She had a division of a Fortune 500 company to run so she needed to put her worry aside and get down to business. She had been working for about an hour and making some headway as she made her way through the never-ending pile of correspondence when Jerry poked his head into her office. Frustrated at the interruption Felicity, sighed and said grumpily, “When I tell you that I don’t want to be disturbed I mean it, unless it was Ada Lovelace returned from the dead, and I’m pretty sure that hasn’t happened.” Then remembering what her life is like, she added, “yet.”
Jerry sighed, “I’m sorry, but it’s about Mr. Palmer. His EA is out here and says that she needs to speak to you urgently. I think it’s important.”
Felicity was sorely tempted to have Jerry tell her to go away, but she knew that Ms. Jennings wouldn’t have come over in person unless it was important. Sighing as she looked over the paperwork on her desk she said, “Send her in Jerry.” While she waited for Ms. Jennings to enter Felicity quickly shuffled her papers into priority order so that she could continue working as soon as she left.
“I’m so sorry to interrupt you Ms. Smoak.” Ms. Jennings said as she walked in. “I know that you are incredibly busy.”
“As I’ve said before, please call me Felicity, and what does Ray need now?”
Ms. Jennings sighed dramatically, “That’s just it, Ms. Smoak, I haven’t been able to get ahold of Mr. Palmer in a week!” Seeing Felicity’s puzzled look, she clarified. “Mr. Kuttler left.” Felicity barely restrained herself not to growl at the mention of her father’s name. She wasn’t even aware that he had been in town, and she was glad to have missed him. “Then Mr. Palmer asked not to be disturbed, and you know how he can get. Because of that I didn’t think anything of it for a few days, but then he had several important meetings and I couldn’t get ahold of him to remind him about them and he never showed! I’ve tried his door, called and e-mailed him, and talked to the other staff to see if they have seen him. I’ve done everything to find him except call the police!”
“Have you had security let you into his apartment?” When Palmer took over the old Merlyn Global building, he had converted the top two floors into his apartment and private lab.
“Mr. Palmer wouldn’t give anyone the access codes, and not even building security has them.” Ms. Jennings said worriedly. “Ms. Smoak, I’m truly worried about Mr. Palmer.”
“Don’t fret, Ms. Jennings, I can get in and will check on him.”
Relief washed over Ms. Jennings face. “Thank you so much!’
“I’ve got a few things that I have to attend to here and then I’ll be right over.” Felicity said gesturing to the pile of documents of her desk.
“Thank you so much Ms. Smoak.” Ms. Jennings said gratefully. “I’m going to do what I can to keep the place going until Mr. Palmer can get back to it. Thank you again!” She stopped halfway to the door and turned back to Felicity. “Once Mr. Palmer is found, tell him your favorite dessert and I’ll make it for you as a thank you.”
That offer perked Felicity up. Palmer had bragged to her about his EA’s baking prowess. “Will do! Thank you.” Once Ms. Jennings has left Felicity finished her ‘get done now’ pile before she called to see if Ray would answer. When she was immediately sent to voicemail, she decided to go to Palmer Tech and check out Ray’s apartment. She let Jerry know where she was going, grabbed the equipment that she thought that she might need and then left her office. She had hoped to have Thea come with her, unfortunately when Felicity walked by her desk she was talking to Walter in his office.
Arriving at Palmer Tech, Felicity used the access card that Palmer had given her to take her to his private floor. Arriving at the entrance to his personal lab she tried the card on the lock pad, no dice. Rolling her eyes she crouched down and using the tools she had brought for this very situation and picked the lock. The door unlocked, granting her access to the room. As it opened she braced herself for a worst case scenario, but, to her surprise, he was standing in front of one of his worktables holding a faintly glowing object. She could see parts of his soon to be ATOM suit strewn all over the room. “Whoa!” She exclaimed, catching his attention and startling him.
Ray jolted almost dropping what she thought was a subsonic ionizer. “Hey Felicity!” He exclaimed, then frowned, “What are you doing here? I thought that I had locked the door?”
Sighing Felicity walked over and took the ionizer out of his hands, wincing when she saw that he had almost used it on something that would have made the whole floor go boom. “Do you know what happens to a company when the CEO goes MIA for a week and misses several important meetings?” She asked, “Newsflash, it’s not good.”
“But I just started working on this. Wait! It’s been a week?” Ray frowned and scratched the patchy beard that was starting to come in, and then rejected the idea. “That’s impossible, it can’t have been a week.”
“Yes, Ray. It’s been a week, and nobody has been able to get ahold of you.” She looked him over carefully, observing the bags under his eyes, how greasy his hair looked, and the funky odor coming off of him, she doubted that he had slept or bathed for the entire duration that he had been MIA. Sighing she told him, “You need to have a shower, eat and sleep, in that order.”
“And I will once I’ve figured out this one last problem. Kuttler had some great ideas and one thing led to another and now I’m almost there! I just need…” He trailed off, reaching to pick up the ionizer again.
Felicity batted his hand away. It was a reflex, just like when Esther reached for something that she knew she shouldn’t have. “Ray, no go boom!’
He rubbed his hand and stared at what he had almost done. “Oh right.” He said looking shaken. “Maybe I do need to sleep.” He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, reminding Felicity of William when he was tired but didn’t want to go to bed, then he turned back to his workbench. “But I swear I will get a full night’s rest right as soon as I fix this one problem.”
“You will not!” Felicity used her loud ‘mom’ voice, being sure to enunciate every word. Once she had Ray’s attention. “I have two kids at home that I need to take care of, so I’ve kinda become a problem solver. William likes choices, so I’m going to give you a choice.” She turned to one of the computers and quickly typed in a few commands and overrode his systems. All of the screens in the room went blank.
“What did you do?” Ray leapt at the closest keyboard hitting the keys, trying to wake the computer up, but the only thing that happened was that a login screen appeared. He stared at Felicity in horror.
“I’ve locked you out. Here are your choices. Option one, you stay up all night and try to hack this yourself, or option two, you shower, eat, and sleep. Then in the morning I will unlock it for you. I highly recommend option two, because this whole situation has gone from endearingly eccentric to creepily not okay.” She stated quietly with authority.
Ray blinked at her a few times contemplating his options, before he tried pleading with her again. “You know why I’m doing this! Our city needs protection now more than ever with what Brick just did! I felt so helpless.”
“We all did.” Felicity allowed that to sink in and then said, “But in order to give this city another layer of protection you need to be operating at 100%, not twenty, because when you are not operating at 100% things go boom.”
“Fine, I’ll take option two.” Ray said reluctantly pouting at her.
“Wise choice! While you shower I’ll have some food delivered then I’m taking you straight to bed.” As soon as those words left her mouth she immediately regretted it, but Palmer didn’t seem to comprehend what she had said, as he slowly made his way to his living area from the lab. While he was gone she called in a pizza order from the team’s favorite place; the food was good and they were always super quick. While Ray was showering and the food was on its way she decided to see what he was hitting a snag on. She put in the password then went through all of the recent updates on the project. She recognized her father’s work and she did have to admit that his idea was pretty smart. Looking through the data, she recognized the problem that he was having. Shaking her head, she set to work to correct it, thinking that he probably would have been able to see it and solve the problem if he hadn’t been so tired.
The ringing of the doorbell interrupted what she was doing. Saving her calculations, she went to grab the pizza from the delivery boy. Pizza in hand she then went to Ray’s living space and walked in just as he emerged from his bedroom shirtless and in a pair of loose-fitting pajama pants. Her eyes widened and she had to make sure that her mouth hadn’t dropped open. Beneath his business suits Ray had been hiding an impressively ripped body. He wasn’t as ripped as Oliver or even Dig, but his abs were impressive enough to look at and Felicity had to remind herself that she had a fiancé that she loved very much.
“Oh, good food!” Ray crowed as he made grabby hands at the pizza boxes reminding Felicity of when Esther wanted something. Handing the food over she turned her attention to the wall and studied the artwork that hung there.
“Is that a Van Gough?” She asked not looking at Ray.
“A Vermeer actually.” He said around a mouthful of pizza. “I rotate the paintings here with my collection at the Starling Museum.” He took another big bite of pizza and talked around it. “I’m really into the Dutch masters this month.” Felicity turned around and tried not to ogle her friend. “Thank you, the shower was an excellent idea and the food tastes better than I thought.” He stepped closer to her and before Felicity could react, he leaned in and kissed her.
Felicity quickly put a stop to the kiss by stepping back and holding her hands up between the two of them. “Ray, no.” She said firmly and held up her left hand showing off her engagement ring. “This means something to me.”
Ray’s eyes got big, “I thought…” He started to say before trailing off. “I’m sorry, I obviously need to sleep more than I thought I did.”
“Yes, you do.” Felicity agreed. Turning to leave she tossed over her shoulder, “Now finish eating and then go to bed. I’ll be back in the morning with the password.
Hoping that she had helped Ray enough, she notified Ms. Jennings that he had been found and what his status was, and then hurried back to Queen Consolidated where she told Jerry that she wasn’t coming directly to the office in the morning but would be going to Palmer Tech instead. She then worked quickly to get caught up so that she could leave on time to get home. It was Raisa’s day off so she picked up food on the way home. Once everybody had been fed and was tucked into bed, she let Moira know that she was heading to the Lair to put some time in there.
Since Oliver had left she hadn’t been going out as much since she wanted to spend as much time as she could with William and Esther to make up for their father’s absence. Rene had picked up the slack left by Oliver and Sara, while Thea helped out in the overwatch position since Dig had also reduced his hours so he could help out Lyla with the baby. Roy had gone out a couple of times as both as Arsenal and the Arrow, to hide Oliver’s absence.
The Lair was blissfully quiet as she descended into it with only the faint thump of music coming from the club above and the humming of her electronics. She changed into her workout gear and spent an hour releasing the tension that she had built up during the day. Once she was ready she slipped into her seat and went through the notes that Thea had left for her about their ongoing searches. She was tracking an arms dealer across the dark web when she felt a presence in the room with her. With her left hand she kept on typing and scrolling while with her right she went for the gun that was hidden under the table.
Pulling the weapon from its holster she smoothly stood up and aimed it at the intruder. The figure was dressed in the same black garb that was worn by the rest of the League of Assassins. “I mean you no harm. I bring a message from Ra’s Al Ghul.” Felicity continued to aim at the intruder as the assassin laid down a cloth bundle on the steel table and slid it her way paying no attention to the gun that she had trained on him. “Ra’s sends this to honor the fallen.” Before she could react, he threw down a smoke grenade and disappeared.
‘Honor the fallen’ what did the assassin mean by that? Felicity wondered. Fear and horror crept into her heart as the realization dawned that Oliver or one of the others was dead. That could be the only explanation as to what the assassin had meant. With a shaking hand she carefully placed the gun on the table and cautiously opened the cloth bundle only to find a blood stained sword laying there. Desperately hoping that it wasn’t Oliver’s blood on the blade, she ran to the lab equipment and began to run a comparison test against what they had on file for Oliver. While she waited for the results she opened her phone and looked at pictures and videos that they had taken with the kids while she prayed that she was wrong. She was watching videos of Oliver being silly with Esther and him playing with William on the playset, when the beeping of the computer announcing a result startled her out of her thoughts. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the results on the screen and started to cry. It was Oliver’s blood.
Pulling into the driveway of the Mansion that night Felicity realized that she didn’t know how she had gotten home. She didn’t remember any of the drive and she wasn’t sure how she could have seen through the tears in her eyes. She checked on the children and then went into their room, automatically getting ready for bed and grabbing one of Oliver’s shirts to use as a nightgown, she needed his scent around to comfort her. Taking a deep breath she told herself that just because it was Oliver’s blood on the sword, it didn't mean that he was dead. It simply meant that he had bled on it. She was sure that everything was just fine. She checked her phone once again to see if she had received any communication from Nanda Parbat, but there was nothing. She sent yet another message and then tossed it onto the charging station in frustration. Feeling lost and undone she clutched Oliver’s pillow to her and finally drifted off to a dream laden sleep.
The next morning when she woke, she was exhausted and it felt like she hadn’t slept at all. She woodenly got up and tried to gather herself together and hide her emotions from the kids. She applied more make up than normal just to look presentable. She got William and Esther up and dressed, dropping William off at school and Esther at QC’s daycare center before going over to Palmer Tech to give Ray the password to access his computers. When she walked in she found him sitting at his kitchen table, eating breakfast. Distantly she was pleased to see that he looked more alert and well rested. He immediately started chattering at her the moment he saw who had broken in. Handing him the envelope containing the password, she said, “A deal’s a deal.”
Ray took the envelope, and carefully looking over her, he asked. “Are you okay?”
“Just peachy.” She muttered, turning to leave.
Laying a hand gently on her shoulder he stopped her, “Wait, Felicity, something’s going on. What is it? Can I help?”
His concern about her, broke her resolve and a sob tore its way out of her throat. She broke down crying, leaving a confused Ray standing there helpless and not sure what to do. It took her a few minutes to calm down and gather herself back together. “I’m sorry it’s been a rough morning. If I could use your bathroom I’d appreciate it and then I’ll be out of your hair.” She didn’t give Ray a chance to answer and instead darted into the bathroom firmly closing the door behind her and locking it. Looking in the mirror she could see where her tears had washed away her carefully applied make-up and her eyes looked red and bloodshot. Digging into her purse she pulled out the compact that she kept for emergencies and did the best that she could to fix her tear streaked face. Looking at herself in the mirror again and deciding that this was as presentable as she could manage, she stepped out of the bathroom.
“Felicity, I…” Ray started, but Felicity cut him off.
“Make sure you check in with Ms. Jennings, she was worried. I’ve got to get back to QC. Bye! Talk later!” She made just it to the door when she saw the computers which reminded her what she had worked on the previous evening. “Oh, and that problem you were having with the umm,” she couldn’t think of the words that she needed. “Anyways, I fixed it for you. And be sure to tell Ms. Jennings that my favorite dessert is tiramisu, she’ll know what that means.”
Walking into her office she told Jerry to only interrupt her if there was an emergency. After checking to see if she had any notifications from Nanda Parbat she completely broke down and allow herself a good cry.
***ARROW***
“Daddy, there’s so many of them. How are we ever going to pick?” The little girl asked as she looked at all of the different paint samples taped to her wall.
“Well which ones do you like?”
She narrowed her bright blue eyes at the choices and then started pulling some of the swatches down, eliminating them. “Well, this is too dark.” She tossed it into the garbage. “And I hate white, because it’s so boring. I like bright! This is going to be such a vibe!” That sample also went into the garbage. “Too boring,” toss. “Now this,” she held up a dark green paint sample.
“Now remember, your room…”
“I know!” The pre-teen said dramatically. “Too dark a color and it makes it look like a dungeon in here. But what about what Mommy said, an accented wall?”
“Accent wall,” he chuckled.
“Yes, we do it in this color.” She said as she held up the sample.
“That would work, but now we need to decide on the trim and the rest of the walls.” The girl brightened, “Put that sample back on the wall and we’ll see what goes with it. I can use your tablet to...”
“No,” she interrupted her father. “We can do this, we don’t need a stupid computer.”
“But it can give us corresponding colors.”
“Nope, we don’t need it! We’ve got it all here!”
“Okay, then.” He looked at the three samples left on the wall, “Let’s see if any of those swatches match.”
One by one the little girl held them next to the dark green sample, but nothing matched. “Guess I need to grab the others out of the trash then.”
“Guess so.” Her dad agreed.
One by one she pulled the samples out of the trash and stuck them to her arm, “It feels a little like Lian Yu.”
“Lian Yu?” Her father asked curiously.
“Yeah, they're all dark.” the girl held up a bright red sample. “What about this one? It’s the color of blood.”
At the mention of blood, his whole body filled with an agonizing pain. His daughter and her room faded from his vision and darkness consumed him. He didn’t know what was happening. It hurt to even breath, but he continued to breathe. His heart continued to pound. He continued to live.